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my saviour

Hopefully many of you have taken the time to read my Nytol Herbal Sleeping tablets review; I got advice from a couple of you to try the Kalms sleeping tablets. So this is basically my follow up review on my journey for a sweet night's sleep.

Pricing ====I purchased these last Friday from my local Boots pharmacy for £5.39; you receive 21 tablets in the pack, which works out at nearly 26p a tablet. Considering you take one nightly these will last 3 weeks, so 26p a night doesn't sound like a lot, but when buying I did find the price quite steep just for 21 tablets. My nytol tablets contained 30 in a pack and didn't cost me half as much as this, but obviously they had failed so I was willing to pay that bit extra for better results. These were at the time of purchase included in the 3 for 2 offers.

Things to know before taking ==================You must not take these if you are under 18 years old; I look very young for my age and was a little embarrassed when the lady behind the counter asked me for I.D for proof of my age. You are not permitted to take these if you are currently taking any other sleeping aid medication or tablets. These tablets are not recommended whilst breastfeeding or during the course of a pregnancy. Alcohol will increase the effect of the sedative so you are advised not to heavily drink whilst taking these. These tablets can make you feel sleep so if you are affected then you must not drive or operate heavy machinery. Lastly it is not advised to take these particular tablets for longer than 4 weeks.

Ingredients =======The most active ingredient in these tablets is Valerian root. This is claimed to have sedative and anxiolytic effects. So I thought these tablets would be perfect for me, due to my anxiety hopefully these would kill 2 birds with one stone as the saying goes. Other ingredients include Croscarmellose Sodium, Magnesium Stearate, Titanium Dioxide, Silicon Dioxide I have never heard of any of these other ingredients but it important to always read the leaflet carefully before taking these tablets, and check the ingredients for any known allergies you may have.

Dosage =====As these tablets are called 'one a night' you would think the dosage was pretty self explanatory. I was under the impression you would just take one a night. This is not the case. You are advised to take 1 tablet 30-60 minutes before bed; I always take it around 45 minutes as this is the timings I've found works best for me. But like I said contrary to the title you can however take an additional tablet if you find that just the one isn't really doing the job.

Did I Sleep?========Now this is the most important bit of my review. So I purchased these on Friday afternoon and was very eager to try them that night. I had a nice hot bath with some relaxing oils hoping tonight would be the night! I took my first tablet about an hour before bed (previously mentioned this has now changed) after around half an hour I did start to feel extremely tired. As the time wore on all I could think of was getting in my nice warm bed. I felt very calm and very relaxed. Once I got into bed I must of fallen pretty quickly as the next thing I remember was looking at the clock or trying to anyway I still felt tired which was amazing for me, I'd slept all night through until 5 in the morning and then drifted back off till around half 7. This was the best night's sleep id had in ages, I was just crossing my fingers that it wasn't a one of! I took one tablet again the following night this time around 45 minutes before bed as this is how long it was for me the previous night. I'm very glad to say the effects were exactly the same, I slept like a baby!! I have taken these every night since and my sleep has greatly improved, I've got a lot to thank these tablets for. And you guys for pointing them out to me!

Would I Recommend?=============I would definitely recommend these; they have greatly improved my sleep. Allowing me to get a considerable amount more pillow time than anything I have tried before. Improving my overall mental state as well, it's amazing what a lack of sleep can do to someone! I understand these might not work for everyone, as certain tablets have worked for others and not for me so everyone's experience with these will probably be different. But have worked wonders for me so I can only base my opinion on my findings of these tablets. I'm giving these a 4 out of 5, my reason for the removal of one star is simply because I find them slightly pricey for just 21 tablets.

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they helped me sleep so would recommend them to others suffering with the same problem

For me there is nothing worse than going to bed when you are are really tired and in need of a decent deep sleep, but when your head hits the pillow your mind and body refuses to shut down for the night and you are left clock watching as the time that you have to be up draws nearer and nearer. I regularly work early shifts and have to be up for half past five, every time without fail i struggle to sleep before the first one, knowing that i had to be up early. I had been putting up with for around a year when one day on my way home from work i thought to myself that i would see if there was anything that i could buy to help me sleep. I stopped of at a Tesco Local store to see what they had. There was not a great selection, but after reading the box opted to go for Kalms Night One a Night tablets as they seemed like a natural and herbal remedy to help sleep and were reasonably priced at around £5.00 for a box of 21 tablets.

The instructions state that you should take one tablet approximately an hour to an hour and a half before you are due to go to bed. I followed this advice and it did help me sleep, although i did struggle to get up the next day and wanted to stay in bed. I took another the next night and it seemed to work again, so i was quite pleased with the outcome. Now, I only take the tablets the night before my first early shift to aid my sleep and it does the job.

The leaflet inside the pack states that if you do not have much joy from taking one tablet, then the next night you should increase the number of tablets taken to two. It also states that the effects of the tablets are not always immediate and that it can take a little while to get into your system, so when struggling with sleep over a period of time you should take a tablet every night. I do not really have this problem though and even though the tablets claim to be made of natural ingredients, i would not like to be taking one every day.

For me the only downside of the tablets is the smell and taste, which is not very nice at all. I have to hold my nose when taking them and wash them down with a strong tasting juice or something as they are really quite strong and bitter tasting. I can put up with it though for a good nights sleep.

Overall, i would give Kalm Night One a Night tablets four dooyoo stars ****. Feel free to comment or ask any questions that you may have and i will get back to you with an answer. Beanie8844.

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A decent product if you have issues falling asleep

Ever since I split up with my husband, which is two years ago now, I have struggled getting a full nights sleep where I wake up feeling rested in the morning. I have no issues in falling asleep as I am often so tired I fall asleep early, but I wake up at various points during the night meaning that I am exhausted the next day and so the pattern continues! I was in boots one day when I spotted a new kalms product which was a one a night tablet designed to help you sleep and as it was on a three for two offer I picked them up to give them a go.

==What is it?==

Kalms is a brand which I mainly associate with sleeping aids but they also offer products designed to help you relax during stressful times. They are a herbal remedy and so suitable for someone who perhaps does not want to visit the doctor to be prescribed medication.

The kalms one a night tablets are a relatively new product which were introduced along side the kalms night tablets. Now I have used the kalms night tablets prior to this and you would need to take three or four tablets per night so the idea of taking one tablet appealed to me. The tablets use a valerian root extract which is a traditional herbal medicine used to relieve temporary sleep disturbances.

The tablets are packaged in a thin cardboard packet. The colour used on the packaging is a deep purple which links to the other kalms night products I have seen. I would imagine the purple is meant to be calming and there is also a picture of a moon to show that the product is designed to be for night time use. We are told on the front of the packet that the kalms night are new and the one a night information is in a bold yellow block so you cannot miss that information at all. Inside the pack there are twenty one tablets, seven per strip, which makes them handy for transporting if you were going on holiday or something.

==Who is it suitable for?==

There are a few advisory notes on the box about who this product is suitable for and I thought it would be a good idea to include these in this review so that people can assess if they would be a good option to use:

-The tablets are not suitable for anyone under the age of 18. For this reason the tablets should obviously be kept out of the reach of children-You should not take the medicine if you are allergic to any of the ingredients or if you are taking any other medication for sleep.-The product is not recommended for people who are pregnant or those who are breastfeeding.

It is also important that you shouldn't continue to take this product if your symptoms worsen or do not improve in a four week period and you should probably visit your doctor after this time.

==My experience==My last experience of using Kalms tablets was ok. It wasn't particularly positive nor was it negative, it was a little hit and miss as to whether it would help me sleep well or not and so I was hoping that I would have more luck with the one a night tablets.

On my first night of using the product I read all the instructions and was advised to take one tablet thirty to sixty minutes before bed time and so an hour before I was planning on going to bed I swallowed a tablet with a drink. The tablets are quite large really which surprised me, around 2cm in length, but they are still quite easy to swallow as they are coated. They do have a rather funny smell to them though and seem to remind me of my dog which isn't entirely pleasant obviously and so I like to swallow them quickly with some diluted squash!

The mistake I think I made on my first night was that I took the tablet when I was downstairs and was watching Eastenders! This wasn't exactly a relaxing environment and whilst the instructions do not state you need this I think it is common sense that the more relaxed you are the easier you will fall asleep. Day one wasn't so much of a hit for that reason I think and I did not sleep any better really.

On the next few nights I made sure I took the tablet when I was almost ready to go to bed meaning that when I was in bed the tablets would begin to work and help me go to sleep. This method worked much better for me to be honest and those few nights I slept well and felt relaxed when I woke up...however I was still waking up at stupid o clock, usually five ish, but I did feel rested and relaxed. Obviously though as the day went on I became more tired and was still falling in to the pattern of going to bed early!

I don't use these tablets every night now but I do use them a few times a week and I find that they do help me feel more rested in the mornings and I wake up fewer times during the night. At one point I was waking up countless times in the night but I find that with these tablets I tend to sleep solidly but just still wake up early. I am still feeling tired because I wake up very early and am a bit stupid and get up and exhaust myself doing all manner of jobs before taking my son to school and starting all over again, but these tablets DO help me to stay asleep more solidly than before.

The box tells me that after the first night should you feel it necessary you can take one tablet earlier in the evening and then another before bedtime but I haven't felt the need to do this as yet and don't think that I will to be honest as they seem to work ok just taking one.

I will certainly be taking some of these tablets away with me when I go to London in the summer as I really struggle to sleep in hotels and unfamiliar places and so I know these will help me to drift off and hopefully make me have a relatively good nights sleep.

I do recommend these tablets if you are having some trouble falling asleep as I find that they seem to make my whole body relax a short while after taking them, especially if I am in bed when I take them. I can actually feel my mind shutting off after around half an hour of taking these tablets and so it really would be helpful in helping you drift off. As I said it also helps me have a more solid nights sleep and so I cannot grumble really although I would love to find that perfect product which makes me not wake up before 7am as I could do with a few weeks solid sleep! I have suffered no side effects at all from this product either.

The tablets are available to buy from boots for £5.10 but are often on a three for the price of two promotions too.

Thank you for reading my review!

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Herbal sleeping tablets that work!!

Prior to two years ago I never ever had problems sleeping. But when I got to university my problems started with sleeping. I stupidly as a first year student worked Saturday and Sundays which meant that I rarely went out on a Friday or Saturday night I tended to go out on student nights in the week instead. But this meant that despite me being tucked up in bed relatively early on a Friday or Saturday night the rest of the girls and guys in my halls were all just getting ready to go out. They would predrink in our kitchen which was unfortunately right next door to my bedroom. So from 10pm till about 11.30pm I knew I wouldn't be getting any sleep so I'd just read a book. Then I had about two hours in which to fall asleep until the drunken students came back into our halls. Usually when I'm asleep at night I don't easily get woken up but my problem was trying to fall asleep in that two hour gap. Two hours seems like a long time and I would be quite tired but it was as if my head was playing games with me and the clock. I would look at the clock at 11.30pm and think come on you can go to sleep now. But it was almost as if I was anxious that I wouldn't fall asleep before they got back and then I wouldn't get to sleep until about 4am. This was the time that the students in my halls went to sleep after playing drunken games in the kitchen. Numerous times I'd get idiots knocking on my doors knowing that they would wake me up. Those nights were not enjoyable! So even though I'd be in bed at 10pm I wouldn't get to sleep till around 4am, I'd keep looking at the clock thinking oh my gosh why have I not fallen asleep yet! It was a vicious circle so I'd of course be tired and grumpy for work despite not going out. It probably would have been better if I had gone out and enjoyed the night. This is where my problems started with sleep and I visited the doctor. My doctor told me to try all the herbal remedies first. I bought whatever I could in Boots as well as ear plugs. The ear plugs helped a lot but the herbal tablets like Nytol and Kalms (where you take approximately 3 to 4 tablets about half an hour before sleeping) did absolutely nothing! I actually did end up on sleeping tablets from the doctor, in very small amounts I hasten to add. I made sure I did not become addicted to them I only took them on the nights when I would have stressed myself out beyond belief with not sleeping. I am actually now at home carrying on my study with the Open University. University just wasn't for me! But even now since if I hear the slightest noise at night like somebody watching television in the lounge it drives me nuts and I can't sleep so most nights I go to sleep with ear plugs in. But just three weeks ago I came across new Kalms Night - One-A- Night. I bought them thinking they probably like the previous herbal tablets I had bought wouldn't do anything. But I was pleasantly surprised. I tend to have periods for say a few days every month when my sleeping patterns are completely thrown for some reason and because I do not sleep well one night I dread not sleeping well the next night and make myself anxious. This is when I take a Kalms Night just to relax myself.

---- So what is Kalms Night? ----

It is a herbal remedy of Valerian Root Extract 500mg in one tablet. Each tablet is approximately just over 1cm in length and are white coated tablets. It is for somebody who temporary sleeping problems. One of these tablets should be taken around half an hour to an hour prior to sleep at night. I wouldn't recommend taking them during the day if you are wanting an afternoon nap, they are supposed to be for a full night's sleep. The instructions state that an additional tablet can be taken earlier on in the evening as well if required but I do not think it would be needed. I just think that if these work with helping my disturbed night's sleep nearly just as well as sleeping tablets given by the doctor using just one tablet then they are doing their job and two tablets are not required.

---- Packaging -----

Kalms Night come in a blue box that has a picture of a moon on. At the top of the box it states that they are new and that they are 'One-A-Night' which is what is new about them. Kalms have used Valerian Root Extract in their previous herbal sleeping tablets but it was in a smaller amount to 500mg which is why more tablets were required to take.

---- Who should not take Kalms Night? ----

Anybody who is pregnant or breast feeding or anybody who is allergic to Valerian Root Extract (which is obvious I know). It also states on the instructions that they should not be taken alongside large amounts of alcohol possible because after alcohol intake it can make you drowsier anyway once your head hits the pillow. Kalms Night should not be taken prior to driving either for safety reasons. However, I do not think that these tablets are strong enough to make you fall asleep at the wheel. They are not like sleeping tablets that more or less knock you out for the night. These just relax you and seem to make me drop off into a natural sleep. It can be argued that these are just psychological that if you think you have taken something then it might make you fall asleep knowing that. But since I am doing a Psychology degree I do always think about that sort of thing and I do think that these Kalms Night are particularly more effective than the regular Kalms or Nytol that contain a lot less in quantity of the particular herbal plant extract.

----- Any side effects? ----

Kalms instructions state that like anything it can cause side effects. If sickness or abdominal cramps are experienced then a doctor should be contacted. I experienced no such side effects though.

---- So what happened after I had taken a Kalms Night for the first time? -----

The first thing I noticed when I took the tablet out of the strip was that it smelt quite strange (not a nice smell anyway). I thought that perhaps it might leave a horrible taste after swallowing like sleeping tablets from the doctor do but it didn't. I took the tablet about 40 minutes prior to sleep and just read a book in bed. After having seen a doctor I know that they do not recommend watching television or using a computer before you go to sleep. A book tends to make me sleepy anyway but once I turn my light off I tend to be somebody that can think for hours about rubbish. But these tablets literally did just send me off straight into sleep. I do not remember thinking about things prior to going to sleep. I woke up at 8.30pm (it was my day off from work which was why I had chosen to take it for the first time that previous night). I was still quite drowsy when I woke up and I found it harder than usual to get up and out of bed. Once I was up and showered and dressed I was absolutely fine, like normal. What I was amazed about after trying Kalms Night was that I had slept the entire night without waking up at all which is extremely rare for me. I usually wake up about 5am, then 6am, then 7am and again until I get up out of bed. It was so nice not to have had that disturbed sleep. So I really was very impressed with these tablets. From my experience of sleeping tablets given from the doctor these were the second best tablets that I have tried and like I previously said I literally tried anything and everything from Boots in the herbal sleeping range.

---- Price ----

I bought three packs of 21 tablets which consisted of three strips of 7 tablets in each pack. I bought three packs simply because it was on three for two in Boots. A pack of 21 tablets costs £5.10. Boots still have their 3 for 2 on these at the moment so that is £10.20 for 63 tablets which is not a lot if they do the trick! They also do pack sizes in 14s, 28s, 42s and 56s.

---- Overall ----

These tablets have been a fantastic finding. I just wish they had sold them two years ago when my problems started with not being able to sleep. I would recommend these to anybody that either wakes up a lot during the night or for somebody who finds it is difficult to get off to sleep to begin with. I would not recommend these to somebody who feels they just want to try a herbal remedy. The thing is not to create a problem with sleep when there isn't one. Believe me not being able to sleep is one of the worst things! I find it is worse than being poorly during the day. Kalms certainly calmed or should I say kalmed my dreaded nights of sleep into quite peaceful undisturbed sleep. These are a safer way to relieve disturbed sleep rather than sleeping tablets from the doctor which can be quite addictive. Kalms Night do state on the box that they are for temporary sleep disturbances which I suppose it is trying to state that they should still not be used on a long term basis so as not to allow you to become dependent on them. I tend to take one a week, or a few in a particularly bad week of the month. But I certainly will not become dependent on them in any shape or form. I saw my mum get addicted to sleeping tablets from the doctor about four years ago (she is thankfully off them now) but it was not a good state to be in knowing that you can only sleep if you take a tablet. Natural sleep is far better and Kalms Night is the closest you will get to using something natural to promote a natural sleep.